wiser in you,
and perhaps better for you, not to engage in so ridiculous a contest
with a fool.'--'No, my lord,' answered he, 'that were not wisely done;
for Solomon, the wisest of men, said, "Answer a fool according to his
folly;" which I now do, and show him the ditch into which he will fall,
if he is not aware of it; for if the many mockers of Elisha, who was but
one bald man, felt the effect of his zeal, what will become of one
mocker of so many friars, among whom there are so many bald men? We have
likewise a Bull, by which all that jeer us are excommunicated.'--When
the Cardinal saw that there was no end of this matter, he made a sign to
the fool to withdraw, turned the discourse another way; and soon after
rose from the table, and dismissing us, went to hear causes.

"Thus, Mr. More, I have run out into a tedious story, of the length of
which I had been ashamed, if, as you earnestly begged it of me, I had
not observed you to hearken to it, as if you had no mind to lose any
part of it. I might have contracted it, but I resolved to give it you at
large, that you might observe how those that despised what I had
proposed, no sooner perceived that the Cardinal did not dislike it, but
presently approved of it, fawned so on him, and flattered him to such a
degree, that they in good earnest applauded those things that he only
liked in jest. And from hence you may gather, how little courtiers would
value either me or my counsels."

To this I answered, "You have done me a great kindness in this
relation; for as everything has been related by you, both wisely and
pleasantly, so you have made me imagine that I was in my own country,
and grown young again, by recalling that good Cardinal to my thoughts,
in whose family I was bred from my childhood: and though you are upon
other accounts very dear to me, yet you are the dearer, because you
honour his memory so much; but after all this I cannot change my
opinion; for I still think that if you could overcome that aversion
which you have to the Courts of Princes, you might, by the advice which
it is in your power to give, do a great deal of good to mankind; and
this is the chief design that every good man ought to propose to himself
in living: for your friend Plato thinks that nations will be happy, when
either philosophers become kings, or kings become philosophers; it is no
wonder if we are so far from that happiness, while philosophers will not
think it their duty to assist